April 27, 2009 @ 8:23 pm | Filed under:
Books Don’t you wish reading and sleeping could be two completely interchangeable activities as far as our bodies’ well-being is concerned? If, instead of sleeping for six or seven hours, you could sleep for three hours and read for four, and be just as refreshed and healthy as if you’d slept all night?
That’d be cool.
Scott brought me home another winner from the library on Saturday, increasing my so-many-books-so-little-time torment. I’m still reading Gilead, ever so slowly, savoring the syllables, the quiet depths. But now I’m also reading—gulping—Fruitless Fall: The Collapse of the Honey Bee and the Coming Agricultural Crisis. This fascinating and rather terrifying work of nonfiction was written by a grad-school classmate of mine, Rowan Jacobsen. I think Jane will want to read it next. I’m loving Rowan’s conversational-but-smart prose. I’m chewing my nails off over the disappearance of the bees. Shortly after I started the book, I told Scott: “I expected this book to alarm me. I didn’t know it would scare the pants off me. By page two.”
Lots of quotes and thoughts to come, I’m sure. This is the kind of book that sticks with you (no honey puns intended).
I also had to squeeze in another Agatha Christie, at Jane’s request. She wanted to discuss something about the book’s conclusion, a plot point which was bugging her. Elephants Can Remember was one of Christie’s later books, I believe—at least, it takes place in the 1970s. A Poirot mystery, but not one of her best. And Jane’s question? Had to do with a massive flaw in the plot, one which I didn’t notice until she pointed it out. That’s my girl.
April 27, 2009 @ 7:58 pm | Filed under:
Family (As with my garden notes, I like to jot down these lists from time to time so I’ll remember what everyone was up to at this season or that.)
Jane, age 13 3/4—
• reading Agatha Christie until her eyes fall out
• crocheting (matching skirts for Rilla and herself—Rilla’s is finished; ain’t it sweet?)
• listening to Abba
• coloring in her Tesselights stained glass coloring book
• playing catch with her daddy
• reading Dragonsinger, lots of Josephine Tey, Homeless Bird
• exchanging smiles with “Somebaby,” as she calls him
• singing with Rilla
• picking lettuce for salad
• taking a watercolors class
• practicing for piano guild
• telling me cool stuff from Muse magazine
• figuring out the location of her Journey North mystery class
Rose, age 10 1/2—
• making spice cake
• rereading the Warriors books (first six)
• playing dolls with Rilla
• playing lots of piano, especially “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”
• picking peas (a few last stragglers)
• playing make-believe games with Beanie half the day
• writing letters
• painting
• letting Rilla and Wonderboy chase her around the house
Beanie, age 8—
• drawing pictures
• reading Warriors books more than anything else, but lots of other things too
• poring over the Nature Experiments books
• thinking about ways to get the monkeys in Zelda
• playing Hex Empire, or watching me play it
• with Rose, looking at optical illusions on my iPod (Eye Tricks is the name of the app)
• playing wolves
All the girls—
• lots and lots of Runescape
• reading As You Like It with me
• Wii Fit
• Wii Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess
• playing catch with their daddy
• watching X-Men cartoons
• watching Empire Strikes Back
• running through the sprinklers
• playing with the balls their uncle sent—a whole big boxful!
